Dominant 2D magnetic turbulence in the solar wind

There have been recent suggestions that solar wind magnetic turbulence may be a composite of slab geometry (wavevector aligned with the mean magnetic field) and 2D geometry (wavevectors perpendicular to the mean field). We report results of two new tests of this hypothesis using Helios measurements of inertial ranged magnetic spectra in the solar wind. The first test is based upon a characteristic difference between perpendicular and parallel reduced power spectra which is expected for the 2D component but not for the slab component. The second test examines the dependence of power spectrum density upon the magnetic field angle (i.e., the angle between the mean magnetic field and the radial direction), a relationship which is expected to be in opposite directions for the slab and 2D components. Both tests support the presence of a dominant (approximately 85 percent by energy) 2D component in solar wind magnetic turbulence.